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Growing in Clover

Last fall we threw on cover crop on a couple of our gardens. In one we planted crimson clover. In spring is was a lovely carpet in the garden and bees loved it. That was one benefit. AND we noticed minimal weeds in that garden. Yipee! Another benefit is nitrogen fixation. Without getting too technical here, clover helps to convert nitrogen into usable nitrogen for other plants. You can certainly google the term for details but all in all clover rocks!

We decided to leave the clover between our rows in Garden 2. If it is good for the soil, the bees and it helps control weeds it could be such a friend out there! So we simply used our rototiller to turn under enough in the rows for planting.

So far so good. Weeds are down and plants are coming in between the rows. This garden has had a serious weed problem in the past- especially with night shade weeds. Last year they over took the garden along with too much rain and this garden was toast! It was tilled under and given up on. 🙁

But here we are at 2 weeks and still looking good. Cucs are coming up nicely.

We have 6 rows of corn and they are popping up right now.

And lots of summer and winter squash.

I have ran a hoe through the garden one time to knock off uninvited guests but they are really at a minimum. It only took me about 15 minutes in a 45 x 32 garden. I am hoping that the clover suffocated many of the weeds and they did not reseed. I am not naive — I know that nothing keeps them at bay 100% but I continue to look for organic ways to minimize them. We have had great success with ag cloth and we wanted to try cover crop as well.

Have you planted between clover before? What do you do to keep weeds under control in your garden?

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2 thoughts on “Growing in Clover”

This year we tried cover crops for the first time and I admit I was anxious. We grew winter rye over the winter and I heard it can be difficult to kill off. It was amazing and easy to manage. Trying white clover in between the rows. Glad to know your crimson clover is working so far!